Brogan checked his watch and looked out to the starboard side of the freighter. He shivered and instinctively pulled up his collar around his neck.
As far as he knew, no-one had found the transponder he’d fixed to the wheel arch of the black sedan. If they had, he knew he’d have joined the rest of the crew. Now they were safely out of the Arctic waters, he realised his time was limited. He felt angry, frustrated he couldn’t do anything more. And alone. Despite risking his life placing the transponder, it seemed no-one had heard his call for help.
When they had docked briefly at Severnya Zemlya to re-fuel and leave their escort behind, Brogan had been shocked to see the man with the glasses being led on board. He had grinned when he saw Brogan’s expression.
‘How’s my car?’ he had asked, before stepping into the cargo hold with the leader the other men called Terry.
Brogan had feared the worst then – surely they would check the car and find the transponder. But the man with the glasses and Terry had seemed pre-occupied with something inside the car instead and had appeared an hour later looking satisfied.
The ship had left the port half an hour later, the man with the glasses taking over one of the old crew member’s cabins for the remainder of the journey.
Brogan risked a glance at the hijackers’ leader, who was bending over the chart table, intent on making sure every step of the journey went to plan.
He jumped involuntarily as the man spoke.
‘How long until we reach the target?’
Brogan looked at his watch again and did the calculation in his head. ‘We’ll be there late afternoon on Saturday if we maintain this speed. We’ll have to slow her down approaching the coastline, then it’ll take about an hour to get to the dock.’
Terry grunted, satisfied. ‘Good. Right on schedule.’
‘Are we going through the lock?’
Terry nodded. ‘And it goes without saying you don’t say anything to the pilot when he gets on board.’ He smiled maliciously. ‘Just remember your daughter.’
Brogan shivered and turned away.
London, England
Dan walked around the conference table and looked at the handwritten plans the team had been drafting up. Philippa had located where the ship had been. Now all the team had to do was try to find it, predict where it was going, and when it would arrive at its destination.
‘Given the current speed it’s been keeping since leaving the Russian ice-breaker behind, the freighter should arrive in the North Sea very soon.’ Dan paused.
He held up his hand to silence the sudden murmurs. ‘Let’s keep this focused – I don’t want to miss a single suggestion.’ He paced around the table, five heads turning to follow his progress. ‘What’s his target?’
Dan stopped and looked at each person individually. ‘Think about it. What’s Delaney’s objective? What’s he trying to prove?’
He continued to pace, thinking out aloud.
‘We know he’s organised a like-minded group of people to finance all sorts of research to counter scientific studies into global warming. We know he’d do anything to protect his organisation, and anything to stop anyone investigating their current project. And we know it’s going to culminate in some sort of demonstration of power which could have catastrophic consequences.’
He reached his own chair, sat down and placed his hands on the desk before looking at each of the attendees in turn. ‘So – what’s the target, and how is he going to get to it from the ship?’
One of the analysts raised his voice. ‘We’ve got the Olympics coming up at the end of July. That would get everyone’s attention, if he attacked that.’
Dan turned to David. ‘What do you think?’
The other man shrugged. ‘There are a lot of security measures in place given the high potential threat status of the event. But Delaney doesn’t fit the profile of the sorts of organised terrorism we’ve been watching, so an attack like that would definitely make us sit up and take notice.’
Dan frowned. ‘He’s going to have to hide the ship somewhere for the next four months. I can’t see him risking bringing it all the way here now.’ He turned to the analysts in the room. ‘Get onto your colleagues bordering the North Sea. Find out if they’ve got anything they can give us.’
He watched as the agents hurriedly began filing out of the conference room back to their desks. He waited until they’d gone, walked over to the door and closed it, and then looked at the others. ‘You realise we’re grasping at straws?’
David nodded. ‘Part and parcel of the job, Dan. Get used to it.’
Forty minutes later, they all jumped as an analyst burst through the door, waving a fax at them. ‘Found it!’
He handed the document to David. The others watched anxiously while he read the fine print. And then began to smile. ‘Our friends in Norway have located the World’s End in real time,’ he grinned.
‘How did they manage that so fast?’ asked Sarah.
The analyst spoke. ‘We gave them the coordinates of the last historical data Philippa obtained. They’ve got a satellite system which can track automatic identification system transponders – the same the captain must’ve placed on the ship.’
Philippa nodded. ‘That makes sense – Norway has the largest sea area to manage in Europe.’ She looked at the fax David passed to her. ‘Even with the transponder going flat, it looks like they’ve perfected the software so it can trace the signature of the ship,’ she explained. ‘With the system they’ve got, they can give us the position, course and speed of the freighter.’ She smiled. ‘We’re back in business.’
‘The captain must’ve been the one who activated the tracking device,’ said Dan. ‘He’s obviously worked out for himself that Delaney’s up to no good and someone, somewhere will be looking out for that ship.’
‘Not to mention the fact he knows what happened to the crew will probably happen to him once the ship reaches its destination,’ said Sarah.